FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2006
Contact: Susan Zinn, Ash Kosiewicz
(210) 212-3731, (512) 743-9563
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TRLA FILES COMPLAINT AGAINST SAN ANTONIO HOSPITAL
FOR REFUSING TO PROVIDE EMERGENCY CARE TO CLIENT
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Inc. (TRLA) filed a complaint this morning with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services against Southeast Baptist Hospital for its refusal to treat a severely ill, indigent 26-year-old woman with no insurance.
Anaya Chestnut, who relocated to the San Antonio area following Hurricane Katrina, went with her parents to the emergency room at Southeast Baptist Hospital in the early afternoon on August 19th because she had been very sick for two days. Chestnut complained of vomiting, shaking, headache, and abdominal pain. Her blood pressure was also dangerously high.
But after a short, two-minute exam, the emergency room doctor discharged Chestnut with advice to seek outpatient care at a later date. No tests. No treatment. No monitoring.
“It was a complete shock to me,” Chestnut said. “I was very frightened because I was sick and they did not want to take care of me. My mother is a nurse’s assistant, and she couldn’t believe it either. She was really worried because my blood pressure was so high.”
Later on that same day, Chestnut was seen by a doctor at Texas Medical Clinic, an urgent care clinic. The doctor, suspecting Chestnut might have had a possible stroke or heart attack, immediately sent her to the emergency room at Southwest General Hospital.
Even though her condition had not changed from earlier in the day, the treatment that Chestnut received at Southwest General was completely different from her experience at Southeast Baptist. The emergency doctor wanted to rule out both a heart attack and stroke. Chestnut’s vitals were taken roughly every half-hour over the course of several hours and the emergency room doctor ordered seven different tests, including a CT scan. The doctor ordered five separate medications before Chestnut even left the emergency room.
The following morning, August 20th, Chestnut was admitted into the hospital’s intensive care unit.
“Southeast Baptist Hospital totally failed to screen or treat Ms. Chestnut for the conditions that she presented in its emergency room, in violation of federal and state law,” said TRLA attorney Susan Zinn. “This reckless disregard is shocking and a great disservice to the people of San Antonio.”
The complaint is filed on Chestnut’s behalf pursuant to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) and the community services obligations of the Hill Burton Act.
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Southeast Baptist Hospital (210-297-3000) is located at 4214 East Southcross Blvd., San Antonio, TX 78228. Texas Medical Clinic is located at 1111 S.E. Military Drive, San Antonio, TX 78214. Southwest General Hospital is located at 7400 Barlite Blvd., San Antonio, TX 78224.
For more information on EMTALA, visit http://www.cms.hhs.gov/EMTALA/. For more information on the Hill Burton Act, visit http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hburton.html.
Established in 1970, TRLA is a nonprofit organization that provides free legal services to low-income and disadvantaged clients in a 68-county service area that covers the southwestern third of the state, including the entire Texas-Mexico border region. TRLA’s mission is to promote the dignity, self-sufficiency, safety and stability of low-income Texans by providing high quality legal services and related educational services.